


Stargazing

by theprodigypenguin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Astronomy, Astronomy class, Awkward Crush, Bisexual Male Character, Crush, Crushes, Cute, Cute Kiss, Falling Stars, Fanfiction, Field, First Kiss, Fluff, Gay Male Character, Getting Together, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Astronomy Tower, James x Teddy, LGBTQ Character, Love, M/M, Pickup truck, Post-Hogwarts, Romance, Shooting Stars, Stargazing, Stars, Teddy x James, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, fan fic, james sirius potter x teddy lupin, jeddy, jeddy fic, meteor shower, muggle, teddy lupin x james sirius potter, teddy owns a pickup truck and james wants to go on an adventure, this is super short and fluffy because I just really wanted to write it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 11:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18549142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theprodigypenguin/pseuds/theprodigypenguin
Summary: The lack of lighting made his eyes look like glass covering shadows, mirrors that had no discernible color but reflected all the stars that he seemed so entirely enthralled with. He looked like a charcoal oil painting on canvas, and Teddy was starting to become an avid art lover.





	Stargazing

Astronomy had been a core class students were required to attend for their first five years at Hogwarts, a branch of magic and science that had the students study stars and the movement of planets. It was a subject where the use of practical magic and spells during lessons wasn't necessary. It was, however, a very necessary subject to become familiar with. Astronomy had a rather large effect on the wizarding world after all. Some segments of Divination pertained to the skies, even the Centaurs would read the stars to shape predictions for the future.

There were certain potions you couldn't brew unless the stars and the planets were in a certain position, and in the past, before modern times, people studied the skies in order to plan their harvests and planting. As boring as it was at times, it was an essential skill to learn, and could certainly come in handy.

Teddy never cared much for it, the midnight classes huddled in shivering groups as the cold night air bit through their jumpers and turned their skin an aggressive red weren't his favorite. He always found himself preferring to curl up in the armchair by the fire in his common room with a mug of chocolate and a book on Transfiguration, so he wondered idly how he'd managed to get tricked into his current predicament.

Lying in the open back of the only vehicle he could afford, which he'd parked in the center of a field in the middle of absolute nowhere, nearing midnight in the lowering temperature and staring up at the sky feeling much like an eleven year old during his first Astronomy class. The only warmth was emanating from the figure beside him, their shoulders pressed together and making Teddy's arm almost searing hot despite the chill of the air.

“So I have to ask, not that I don't absolutely love it when we go on adventures like this.” Teddy cleared his throat. “What exactly are we doing out here?”

The answer he received was about as helpful as he'd expected. “I already _told_ you, Ted, it's a surprise.”

Typical James Potter.

“We're both going to freeze to death out here.”

James merely laughed at Teddy, shifting around and grabbing the edge of a blanket folded next to him, dragging it over himself to throw over Teddy. With the blankets padding the bed of the truck and the additional blanket now covering them both, Teddy found himself growing warmer and more comfortable.

“There we are, little Teddy is all tucked in.”

“Don't make me hit you.”

James laughed again, and Teddy rolled his head to the side just enough to watch the other man pull the blanket higher towards his chin. There wasn't much of the moon in the sky, a perfect crescent surrounded by dots of stars, but parked in a field with no trees for yards in every direction, there was just enough light casting down for Teddy to get a perfect look at James’ face. The moonlight sent silver shadows across his features, making the freckles on his cheeks look like dark stars.

The lack of lighting made his eyes look like glass covering shadows, mirrors that had no discernible color but reflected all the stars that he seemed so entirely enthralled with. He looked like a charcoal oil painting on canvas, and Teddy was starting to become an avid art lover.

It was torture of the greatest level, having to lie there next to James, sharing their body heat under a blanket and waiting for… well, Teddy wasn't sure what they were waiting for actually. Hours earlier James had shown up looking like he'd discovered the Holy Grail, brown eyes alight and grabbing Teddy by the arm the moment he was close enough.

“Grab your keys, we're going on a Muggle adventure!”

That's what he'd said, before somehow convincing Teddy to drive hours out of town and to where they were now. The sky was unusually clear that night, Teddy couldn't even see the shadows of small curling clouds that normally painted the sky almost all hours of the day or night. It was almost too perfect.

Too romantic.

Teddy could feel his cheeks were flushed already, thanking all luck that it was night and too dark for James to see. At least he dearly hoped so, because he'd been hiding this feeling, this tiny inconceivable crush, this immoral lust and longing for James for _years,_ and he'd be damned if he was going to let the truth slip out now.

James shifted again, pulling his arms from beneath the blanket to check the watch on his wrist, holding down a button that made it glow green. “Just about time now,” he said, and Teddy hummed. “You better not have your eyes closed, Lupin, or you're gonna miss it.”

“They're not closed,” Teddy insisted, blinking a few times as if to prove it to himself. “Now what is it I'm looking at?”

“You'll see in _just_ a few seconds,” James promised, and Teddy was about to ask again when a light streaked across the sky.

Then he understood why James was so eager to come out here, a smile curling his lips as another handful of stars began to fall.

“Meteor shower,” Teddy uttered, and James nodded beside him. “This is what you wanted to show me?”

“Ah, yea, see… I was reading the other day.”

“Stop the presses and call the Daily Prophet.”

“Shut up, Ted,” James laughed loudly. “So, it was an advanced Astronomy text my aunt gave me, I have no idea why. In the book, it said meteor showers often represented a mystery coming from something larger than ourselves; awareness of recognition of something beyond our present experience. A soul or spirit. Whatever one imagines it as, tends to become their reality.”

Teddy nodded slowly. “That's interesting.”

“Don't laugh at me.”

“I'm not laughing. This isn't my laughing voice.” Somehow he could just feel the tension building in James, so he rolled his head and nudged the younger man's shoulder. “Hey, I didn't mean to sound disinterested, you got my attention and I am now curious. So meteor showers represent things like rebirth, awareness of self, a kind of truth. Makes sense in our world, right? Is that why you brought me out here?”

James shrugged, arms folded across his stomach. “I guess.”

“Jamie… you know, I'm not dumb, but you're going to have to give me a bit more than that if you want me to understand what the purpose of this trip is.”

James sighed a little. “I just thought it was a good opportunity to… you know… confess or something. You know, because meteor showers represent truth, awareness of self.”

“Alright, go ahead,” Teddy urged. “What do you want to confess?”

“That-,” James turned his head to look pointedly at Teddy, “yea, that, I just did. I confessed.”

Teddy stared at him with a blank expression, passing the words around in his head for a rather ridiculous amount of time before something seemed to click. He shifted and pushed himself onto his elbow, leaning towards James. He felt like everything had been put on pause, everything felt colder and his heart was racing so hard it was in his throat.

“What did you confess?” he asked, feeling and sounding a little bit too hopeful, and James rolled his head to look away from Teddy, shrugging.

“Stars are pretty tonight.”

Teddy opened his mouth to say something, words caught in his throat with his heart and prompting him to clear his throat and try again. “What did you confess?”

James exhaled through his nose, keeping his arms firmly crossed like he was annoyed. “You know, you're smarter than this.” He turned his head to stare up at Teddy. “It's not like this is the first time. I'm just a lot older now.”

Teddy opened his mouth and was yet again speechless as his mind seemed to backtrack years in the past, when James was fourteen. The eldest Potter child had always worn his heart on his sleeve and spoken his mind without any semblance of shyness or insincerity. Everything James said was honest and truthful when it meant something, even his little lies were made with the best intentions, only doing so if he felt he needed to in order to protect or help someone.

Teddy knew James took everything he spoke seriously. When he confessed to Teddy he liked guys, Teddy believed him and supported him, but when he said he liked _Teddy,_ he just smiled, because that was ridiculous. James was fourteen, a young kid with his whole life ahead of him, someone Teddy loved dearly and wished only the best on, and frankly, Teddy didn't believe he was enough for James. He didn't think he was worthy.

In fact he still didn't.

“Aw thanks, Jamie! I like you too!” was how he replied to James’ confession, and he expected James to grin back and laugh and go back to what he'd been doing before.

Instead he watched Teddy for a long moment with an expression that Teddy couldn't read, an expression that didn't belong on James Potter's confident face. His eyes looked broken.

This situation was almost exactly the same, but James hadn't said anything concrete. Teddy could read between the nuance of his words, but he didn't know if he wanted to admit it.

“Jeez,” James sighed loudly and sat up quickly, turning to Teddy. “Is it really that ridiculous? I like you! That's my confession!”

“Yea.” Teddy gave a nod. “I like you-”

“Oh don't even, I've heard that before,” James looked increasingly frustrated. “I don't just like you Teddy, I love you, okay?”

“I love you too, Jamie,” Teddy said simply, feeling weightless, and James gave another frustrated sigh, shoulders sagging.

“Godric's sake, do I have to spell it out for you? I don't love you like a brother, I love you like a lover, I love you romantically! I want to go on stupid dates and hold hands in public, I want to kiss you and be so affectionate in public that people get uncomfortable!”

“Yea, Jamie-”

“For the record I felt this way when I confessed the first time too, back when I told you I thought I might be gay, but evidently I wasn't clear enough, and honestly that says a lot about your Intelligence Mister Head Boy!”

“Jamie-”

“Maybe you just saw me as some kid, but I'm not a kid anymore and this feeling hasn't lessened at all from back then, it's only gotten stronger, and I know you might not feel the same way, but I needed to tell you and I needed you to understand everything clearly, this way if you reject me, even if it hurts, at least I'll know you understand how I feel and I can just let it go so-”

Teddy reached out to frame his hands around James’ face, dragging him closer and closing his eyes. A voice at the back of his mind warned it was a spontaneous action that could have irreversible consequences, but all thoughts fled when his lips met James’.

It was quick, maybe too quick, before he pulled away to meet the younger man's startled eyes. “You were talking too much,” Teddy defended. “I was worried I wouldn't get a chance to reply to you if you didn't stuff it. You do tend to talk so much when you're anxious that you answer your own question before anyone else can.”

“I don't do that.”

“I love you too.” Teddy kept his hands on James’ face, hoping he wasn't shaking, because this was one of the most nerve wracking situations he'd ever been in.

He could act as confident and cool as he wanted, things like this, things that involved genuine emotion and connection, always made Teddy weak.

“Back then, you were just a kid, it wasn't right, and I didn't feel the same.” James tried to duck his head, but Teddy kept his chin up with a hand he moved to hold it. “I think when you were around seventeen I started finding myself daydreaming about you in shameful fantasies. I felt horrible, but the older you got, the stronger my feelings became, and I had plenty of time to really think through it. I thought maybe it was just curiosity that grew as you matured, something strictly impure, and the last thing I wanted to do was subject you to that kind of thing. Then I started to realize that wasn't really the point of my fantasies.”

He slowly pulled his hands away from James, wanting to give him the option to pull away or put space between them. Teddy expected it, and wouldn't have been surprised. He just took the innocent confession and turned it into something amorous and suggestive. It probably made him look like a predator, but if James wanted honesty he was going to get honesty.

“Wanting to sleep with someone is different than wanting to sleep next to someone, and that's what I found myself thinking of most often. Waking up next to you. I'm… this is the last thing I expected you to say, I'm not really prepared-”

James was the one to respond then, hands reaching out to Teddy's shirt and grabbing handfuls of the fabric, yanking him close and kissing him. It was about as quick as the first one before James pulled back, though his hands were still holding tight handfuls of Teddy's shirt.

“Stop talking and kiss me, really kiss me, show me you mean what you just said.”

Teddy lifted a hand again to his face and kissed him. The meteor shower was forgotten, and it was over by the time they broke their kiss to breathe. They kept their foreheads pressed together and James laughed, reaching up to rub at his eyes.

“I really expected this to go terribly.”

“Which is why we drove out to the middle of nowhere?”

“No,” James said in a laugh. “I really did want to watch the meteor shower with you, and I wanted to confess, but you know me.”

“I do know you,” Teddy drew his thumb across James’ cheek. “Listen, Jamie-”

“If you're going to tell me this is a bad idea, believe me, I've considered the consequences and I don't care.”

“I wasn't going to say that,” Teddy promised. “Actually I… I was going to ask where you wanted to go from here.”

“Oh.” James blinked, then grinned. “You wanna make out again?”

Teddy rolled his eyes and James giggled. “I meant do we need to discuss this, do you want something official?”

“That would be nice, absolutely,” James agreed readily. “I'd love to show you off at Quidditch practice and tell everyone you're my new arm candy.”

“Maybe if you don't call me arm candy.”

“Can we go on a date?” James asked, and even though the light was so dim, Teddy could still see the grin and the way his eyes were glittering.

“Yea, that would be nice,” Teddy said dreamily.

James leaned closer. “I'd also like to make out again if that's okay. I mean I've been waiting to kiss you senseless since I was thirteen.”

Teddy brushed aside that admittance and simply nodded, and James was kissing him before he could get out the “yes”.

With his eyes closed and concentrating fully on the sensation of the lips connected, he wouldn't have been able to see the last star fall anyway, but it did, bright white and streaking across the sky before fading in the distance, and it certainly did feel like something new and wonderful was starting.


End file.
